For you the viewer, the only thing that matters is do these images please you?

And I don't mean "please" in some superficial way, I am referring to some strong response that will provide value each time you spend a moment with the photograph.

I've come to the conclusion that I am a naturalist first, and an artist second. My friends might find that I am very slow to come to this realization but now I have finally arrived. Possibly.

Photography is the art form that I embrace with the hope that I can draw people into a relationship with the natural world -- a relationship that has been so very rich for me. I hope to share what I see and how I see the world with people who are open to the experience. It is a big part of who I am. Photo ergo sum -- with apologies to Descartes and to lovers of Latin everywhere.

To this end I travel, sometimes to exotic, beautiful and biologically diverse places. Sometimes I just walk the trails in Missouri, here at Brawley Creek. There is beauty everywhere, and when I find it I observe and photograph, study the images, respond and write.

I like to photograph beauty. Each of us has our own idea of what is beautiful and there are differences of opinion, but taken as a group, humans are remarkably consistent in their assessment of beauty.

We both see and hear rhythms, some are powerful and demand a response from us while others slip beneath our notice. The same is true of colors and color combinations, and of the arrangement of lines and the blocking of an image that make a rhythm of the composition.

These are innate responses that create a foundation or at least a substrate upon which our cultural milieu and our individual differences are layered. But no matter how it is dissected, we respond to images as a single integrated experience -- a wholistic response.

My ambition is to provide the viewer an experience of this sort that is both worthwhile and pleasurable. To show him or her something new. Something that she hasn't seen before or something that can be seen from a new perspective and so create a new experience. Or simply to provide context so that the satisfaction of understanding can be joined with the aesthetic strength of a well crafted image. All the tools of digital photograph are at my disposal.

There are several formats in which to enjoy these images. Large panoramas, usually done on canvas, conventional photographic prints under glass, that can be made in a variety of sizes, and inexpensive note cards that make wonderful gifts.